The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is Guns N' Roses' "Appetite for Destruction." Word is that the "band" - that is, Axl Rose with some has-beens looking for work - will release a new album, "Chinese Democracy." And single. Soon. Really. Like, any day now.

 

Those of you who have been holding your breath for this album about as long as China's been holding its breath for democracy itself may think about exhaling. Since there's no way this could be, like, you know, another false alarm or anything. I mean it's on iTunes, so it has to happen. Right?

 

Opera has released a preview of Opera Mini 4.2, the newest version of the mobile Web browser which, company officials claim, "works on almost every mobile phone."

 

With this beta release, the Operatics say they're celebrating Opera Mini being "the browser of choice for more than 20 million unique monthly users worldwide." It's available to download for beta testing at http://www.operamini.com/beta/.

 

The number of people using Opera Mini worldwide "proves that there is a true revolution going on," says Jon von Tetzchner, chief executive officer of Opera. "We focus on developing a faster and more personal browsing experience."

 

Opera Mini 4.2 beta is designed to provide what company officials describe as "a more personalized experience" with its skins, improved support for YouTube and other mobile video services on a wider selection of mobile phones. Improvements in Opera Link let users share notes between their mobile phones and PCs, in addition to their bookmarks and recently-visited URLs.

 

"Opera Mini is a mobile application to be reckoned with," says John Jackson, vice president of Yankee Group. "We have witnessed a 10 percent average growth in the number of Opera Mini users worldwide every month, with every indication that the trend will continue."

 

Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA.

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Aperio CI, the U.S.-based provider of software for communications service providers, has announced the release of its newest product, Social Network Analysis and Propensities, a tool to help "identify social groups within a mobile provider's network," helping operators "build retention among social network members," company officials say.

 

"As mobile markets in North America and Europe reach their saturation points, operators are embracing the notion that a sales strategy focused on high-margin data services is critical to their success," said Duffy Mich, chief executive officer for Aperio CI. 

 

Using data analytics SNAP examines voice and text call data to identify social networks within an operator's customer base, analyze how users interact with one another, and calculate the influence they have on other customers in terms of products and services, customer service, brand loyalty, and overall satisfaction. 

 

Based on a full analysis of call detail records, SNAP categorizes users in terms such as Deciders, Connectors, and Influencers, assigning degrees of risk and value to each category and offering clear action items for operators to deliver offers and communications through specific channels to appropriate social network group members.

 

A feature of the product is its use of Connected Value, for revenue generated by a sub-set of social network members, to quantify a customer's true value to an operator. The idea is to demonstrate how a user who is also a social network influencer might have a substantially higher value to an operator than a customer that spends twice as much each month -- but does not influence any other users within the social network.

 

Hyoun Park, research editor with the Aberdeen Group, says rethinking customer valuation - "understanding why ARPU is less important than a user's Connected Value" - and adjusting for that change in customer service, "is a game changer that will provide a competitive advantage to carriers who accurately perceive the true value of their most important customers."

 

SNAP uses elements of several of Aperio CI's existing products, including its SmartSave and FlashTrac applications. SNAP is delivered as a fully-managed service, uses existing customer data, and can be integrated into the provider's CRM and billing infrastructure.

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PivotLink, which sells on-demand business intelligence, has announced the general availability of PivotLink BI for users of the on-demand Salesforce CRM application.

 

Certified for Salesforce.com, PivotLink's on-demand business intelligence offering provides an application designed to, in company officials' words, "unify all your Salesforce.com data, combine it with any outside data source and presents the information with dashboards and customizable reports."

 

Joseph Arascunaga, from JunkmyCar.com, said PivotLink's on-demand offering "makes it simple for users to unify, store and analyze their data. Salesforce users can break through the Salesforce reporting silos and now combine information with ease across any time period and across large data sets."

 

Narinder Singh, Chief Marketing Officer of Appirio, says with the "inevitable" move to the cloud, "we are seeing more and more customers searching for on-demand business intelligence tools that take the burden off of IT and provide an aggregation engine that allows users to create reports and analyze company information without the constraints and costs of an non-premise product."

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Go2Group, which sells Software Production Line Automation, has publicly released the Go2Group CRM Plugin 3.0, providing what company officials say is "additional functionality for Salesforce users and providing integration to SugarCRM."

 

The Go2Group CRM Plugin 3.0 is available with a free, fully supported 30-day evaluation. Company officials say it provides "integration between Atlassian JIRA and CRM systems, providing tighter collaboration between development teams, sales groups, and support teams."

"This is a historic release of the Go2Group CRM Plugin," said Doug Bass, Go2Group's SVP, Research & Development, and architect of the Go2Group CRM Plugin. "The requests for integration between SugarCRM have been overwhelming."

New Features in the plugin include SugarCRM integration, custom tab support, updated encryption and Salesforce notifications, among others.

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UDC, a retail automotive BDC consulting, training and CRM software provider, has announced a 50 percent increase in CRM software sales for third quarter 2008. The company also reported a 22 percent increase in high line automotive clients since year-end 2007.

 

UDC attributed the growth to its BDC consulting and training program which it claims "improves the sales of a typical dealership by as much as 35 percent."

 

"We've been very pleased with our expansion over the past several months," said UDC CEO Hans Van Order. "All of our business is referral-based."

 

UDC was founded in 2000 as a luxury automotive BDC consulting and training firm. The company concentrated on implementing BDC departments that included BDC policy and procedures, as well as the hiring and training of BDC staff to s handle inbound and outbound sales opportunities.

 

The firm later extended its offerings to include two CRM products, Momentum and Revolution. Momentum is a Web-based, sales CRM tool which integrates sales floor, BDC and Internet department customer data into a central database that can be viewed and shared by any sales unit in the dealership.

 

Revolution is a service CRM product that includes shop loading and capacity management features, real-time appointment scheduling, a TSD loaner management interface and marketing tools designed to improve service department performance. Both CRMs interface with ADP and Reynolds and Reynolds.

 

In 2007, UDC was named an authorized Mercedes Benz USA and BMW of North America BDC/CRM consulting, training and software provider.

 

In February, UDC launched its first international venture, developing and delivering a series of successful BDC workshops for Volkswagen Brazil. UDC will be returning to Brazil in 2009 for a follow-up series of seminars. Recently, the company closed a deal with Mercedes-Benz of Canada to conduct BDC training and consulting with dealerships in Toronto and Vancouver.

 

Headquartered in Irvine, California, UDC is a developer of CRM software products and a BDC consulting, training and hiring specialist for automotive retail sales and fixed operations.

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Selltis, LLC, a provider of on-demand customer relationship management software for end-to-end sales process automation, today announced that the Industrial Distribution Program at Texas A&M University has selected Selltis Sales 5.0 for use in its Supply Chain Systems lab curriculum. The Industrial Distribution Program has been using Selltis for its industrial distribution course offering since 2002 and recently migrated to the newest version of the company's namesake CRM software.

 

The Thomas and Joan Read Center, a part of Industrial Distribution Program at Texas A&M University, is the only university center in the United States that focuses on research and education in industrial distribution. Its professional development and educational programs are designed to increase an organization's competitive advantage and profitability. The Center focuses on relevant and actionable education through proven methods and tools. Some of the unique characteristics of its programs are relevant learning, distribution focus, research-based education, distribution domain experience of our faculty, and access to our research products and services.

 

Texas A&M's Supply Chain Systems Lab is accessed by the University's Industrial Distribution programs at every level, including approximately 500 undergraduate, 20-80 graduate, and 300-500 continuing education students each year. Additionally, numerous faculty members and graduate students use the Lab to conduct millions of dollars of research each year for the distribution community as a whole, including major corporations throughout the U.S.

 

"As part of the curriculum, our goal is to help students understand the workflow for making and selling products as well as he technology behind them," said the university's Dr. Arunachalam Narayanan.

 

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Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin yesterday voiced his support for a rulemaking that would establish a quiet period for broadcast carriage talks between cable operators and broadcasters during the digital television transition. Responding to a report by Broadcasting & Cable yesterday, ACA applauded the Chairman for his leadership and renewed its claim that for a quiet period to be effective, it must begin no later than December 31, 2008 - the expiration date of thousands of current broadcast carriage deals.

 

"The date of the DTV transition is rapidly approaching and every precaution must be taken to ensure its success," said ACA president and Chief Executive Officer Matthew M. Polka. "It is encouraging that Chairman Martin continues to recognize how important a quiet period is to the success of the transition, and that he is committed to issuing a rulemaking notice to solicit comments from interested parties. We thank the Chairman and the other Commissioners for their leadership on this matter.

 

"Unless the FCC establishes a quiet period, dropped signals in the months ahead will continue to cause confused cable and satellite customers to needlessly request digital-to-analog converter box coupons," Polka continued. "These added requests would cause a potentially unsustainable strain on the National Telecommunications and Information Agency's (NTIA) coupon program and could ultimately mean households that actually need government coupons and converter boxes may not be able to get them and would lose television service. To minimize this risk, it's essential that the Commission establish a quiet period that beings before December 31, the date most broadcast carriage agreements expire."